9th Battery, 41st Brigade, Royal Field Artillery

2nd Lt Farmer (centre back row) with his family in the garden of their home at Mundesley, Norfolk.

Lt Farmer was the second of five service sons of Lieutenant J H Farmer (late attached officer, War Office) and Mrs Farmer (District Representative of the Red Cross Society and member of the War Agricultural Committee).

James was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and gazetted as second lieutenant to the Royal Field Artillery in 1913. On the outbreak of war, he was posted to the Western Front with 9th Battery, 41st Brigade.

Lt Farmer was killed in action, aged 21, on 4 November 1914. He is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial and buried at Eksternest cemetery.

Photo also shows: Lieutenant F S H Farmer (Special Reserves of Officers, 3rd Attached and 2nd Norfolks); Lieutenant L G H Farmer (Royal Navy, served on HMS Colossus in the North Sea and Flag Lieutenant to Naval Commander in Chief, East Indies); Lieutenant C R H Farmer (18th Hussars, Motor Machine Guns Section) and G A H Farmer (Honourable Artillery Company).

Photograph presented by his father Lieutenant J H Farmer, Norfolk.

Faces of the First World War

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This image is from IWM Collections.

• The Museum released this image on a custom licence - IWM Non-Commercial license. However where the photograph has no known author, these are public domain under the 70 rule and where they were owned by the Ministry of Information, any other government department or agency, taken by a member of the military during their service or by a photographer commissioned by the services, these are now out of copyright restriction.